China’s state-owned energy giant CNOOC says that its converted large LNG bunkering vessel, Hai Yang Shi You 301, completed the first bunkering operation to an LNG-powered VLCC in the Guangzhou port.
This marks also the first ship-to-ship anchorage LNG bunkering operation of an LNG dual-fuel VLCC in China, according to CNOOC Gas and Power, a unit of CNOOC.
CNOOC’s unit said in a statement that the world’s largest LNG bunkering vessel completed the bunkering operation at the anchorage of Guangzhou port in Guangdong on August 3.
It delivered about 6,500 cbm of LNG to the tanker during the operation.
The VLCC in question is the 320,500-dwt, Maran Dione, owned by Maran Tankers Management, the oil tanker unit of Greece’s Angelicoussis Group.
Maran Tankers recently took delivery of this vessel, its fourth LNG dual-fuel VLCC, from South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries.
CNOOC Gas and Power claims that the received LNG fuel enables the VLLC to sail over 10,000 nautical miles continuously, covering the round-trip voyage from Guangzhou to Europe.
CNOOC expanding LNG bunkering network
With this move, the Chinese energy giant continues to expand its LNG bunkering network in China using the 30,000-cbm LNG bunkering vessel, Hai Yang Shi You 301.
In November last year, CSSC’s Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI) converted this 184.7 meters long LNG carrier with Wartsila DF engines and TGE Marine type C tanks to enable it to perform ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operations.
The converted vessel now has a capacity to deliver up to 1650 cbm of LNG per hour during an STS operation.
The LNG bunkering vessel completed its first bunkering operation in the Yantian port in Shenzhen on January 18.
Hai Yang Shi You 301 also recently completed the first LNG bunkering operation at the Meishan terminal in the Ningbo-Zhoushan port.
The bunkering vessel delivered about 9,400 cbm of the fuel to the LNG-powered containership, CMA CGM Unity, during the operation.
This was the first bonded LNG bunkering operation in the Zhejiang province and the first LNG bunkering operation for CNOOC in the Yangtze river delta region, CNOOC Gas & Power said.
Prior to this bunkering operation, the 30,000-cbm Hai Yang Shi You 301 loaded LNG at CNOOC’s Ningbo LNG import facility in Zhejiang.
In addition to this operation, the vessel recently provided fuel to Hapag-Lloyd’s ultra-large LNG-powered containership, Berlin Express, in the Ningbo-Zhoushan port.
Besides this converted ship, China’s Nantong CIMC Sinopacific Offshore & Engineering is also building CNOOC’s 12,000-cbm LNG bunkering vessel.
The CCS-classed 132.9 meters long and 22 meters wide vessel will have a draft of 11.8 meters and will feature two type C tanks each with a capacity of some 6,000 cbm.
After completion in 2024, it will mainly fuel coastal LNG-powered ships, inland river refueling stations, and undertake LNG transfers along the giant Yangtze river.